Clayton Swisher

Clayton E. Swisher is an American journalist and author, currently working as the Director of Investigative Journalism for the Al Jazeera Media Network in Doha, Qatar.

Swisher in 2014.

He is the author of two non-fiction books on the Arab–Israeli conflict.

Early life and education

Swisher is the son of Mary Swisher and James Swisher Jr. He grew up in Michigan and later in New Castle, Pennsylvania where he played football for Neshannock High School. After high school Swisher attended the University of Pittsburgh, in 1999 he graduated with a Bachelor's in Administration of Justice. In 2003 he graduated from Georgetown University with a Master's in Islam & Muslim-Christian Relations. [1]

Career

Swisher was a bodyguard for the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.[2] He served as a bodyguard for Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, as well as other leaders, including head of the PLO Yasser Arafat.[3]

Swisher is currently the head of the Al Jazeera Investigative Unit, based at the network's headquarters in Doha. He has worked for Al Jazeera English, and other parts of the Network, since 2007.

In 2012, Swisher produced and conducted the reporting for the Al Jazeera documentary, What Killed Arafat?[4] It won the 2013 CINE Golden Eagle Award for best Investigative Journalism and was nominated for other awards.[5][6][7]

The nine-month investigation revealed high levels of radioactive Polonium-210 in articles left behind by Yasser Arafat, the first President of the Palestinian National Authority. This led to a French criminal investigation and the exhumation of Arafat's body.[8][9] The forensic investigation, conducted by experts from France, Switzerland, and Russia, reached differing conclusions. The Swiss team said the elevated levels of Polonium lead to the conclusion that Arafat was poisoned. However, the French and Russian scientists said the Polonium on his clothing was of "natural environmental origin" and that Arafat had died of natural causes.[10]

In October 2017, Swisher acknowledged planting an undercover reporter inside pro-Israel organizations in the U.S. and the UK as part of an Al Jazeera documentary called The Lobby.[11][12][13][14] As a result of Al Jazeera's undercover investigation, in early 2018, Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin of New York urged President Donald Trump's administration "to open an investigation into Al Jazeera's activities in the U.S. and force the network to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA."[15][16] Swisher has criticized Al Jazeera's decision not to screen a documentary series based on pro-Palestinian film-maker and undercover journalist James Anthony Kleinfeld's undercover investigation into the pro-Israel advocacy groups in the U.S. and accused the network of capitulating to outside pressure from the Qatari government and pro-Israel advocates.[17]

Publications

Swisher's first book, The Truth About Camp David, was published in 2004. L. Carl Brown wrote in Foreign Affairs, "This may not be the definitive 'truth about Camp David,' but it warrants careful attention from all who would learn from the history of negotiations to secure peace in the Holy Land."[18] In a review in the Negotiation Journal, David Matz wrote, "Swisher's report is undermined by the prominence and vehemence of his opinions" and that "his heavy-handedness is off-putting."[19]

In 2011, Swisher's second book, The Palestine Papers: The End of the Road? was released, examining the themes of the more than 1,600 leaked documents on the Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, that Swisher had obtained for Al Jazeera.

gollark: This is somewhat helpful, thanks.
gollark: Also, can someone comprehensibly explain what a "tensor" is? I hear about them a lot, but Wikipedia says something incomprehensible about multilinear maps and I remember reading something useless like that a "tensor is something that transforms like a tensor".
gollark: Sounds unpleasant.
gollark: On all the maths exams I do, we have calculators.
gollark: You don't have to prove it. The unfortunate target of this problem will just assume it.

References
  1. "Neshannock Grad Nominated for Award".
  2. "New Palestinian lobby group in U.S. opposes Israel as a Jewish state". The Jerusalem Report. August 11, 2003.
  3. "Revisiting Arafat's Last Days".
  4. "Clayton Swisher: Ask Me Anything on Arafat". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  5. "Spring 2013 CINE Golden Eagle Award Recipients". CINE. Archived from the original on 16 September 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  6. "BAFTA Television Awards". British Academy Television Awards. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  7. "RTS Announces Winners For Television Journalism Awards". Royal Television Society. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  8. "What Killed Arafat?". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  9. "Yasser Arafat exhumed and reburied in six-hour night mission". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  10. Isachenkov, Vladimir (27 December 2013). "Russia: Arafat's death not caused by radiation". WTOP. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  11. "Al Jazeera planted undercover reporter in US pro-Israel groups". JTA. October 10, 2017.
  12. Eisenbud, Daniel K. (10 October 2017). "Undercover Reporter in US Pro-Israel Groups". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  13. Tibon, Amir (11 October 2017). "Al Jazeera Admits to Planting Undercover Reporter in U.S. pro-Israel Organizations". Haaretz. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  14. "Al Jazeera planted undercover reporter in US pro-Israel groups". The Times of Israel. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 10 October 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  15. Allison, Bill (7 March 2018). "Lawmakers Push for U.S. Review of Al Jazeera as Foreign Agent". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  16. Wilner, Michael (6 March 2018). "Congressmen ask Justice Department to weigh Al Jazeera as foreign agent". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  17. Swisher, Clayton (8 March 2018). "We Made A Documentary Exposing The 'Israel Lobby.' Why Hasn't It Run?". The Forward. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  18. "The Truth About Camp David: The Untold Story About the Collapse of the Middle East Peace Process". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  19. Matz, David (January 2006). "Reconstructing Camp David". Negotiation Journal. 22 (1).
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